


Missing calls

by bestaceinspace



Category: Inception (2010)
Genre: M/M, Phone Calls & Telephones, Pre-Slash
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-08-23
Updated: 2013-08-23
Packaged: 2017-12-24 10:20:31
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,265
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/938810
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bestaceinspace/pseuds/bestaceinspace
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Just phone calls between Arthur and Eames.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Missing calls

**Author's Note:**

> Truth is I wrote this ages ago and decided to post it cause seeing unposted fics on my computer files makes me sad.

The phone rings just one time until Arthur picks it up. _Always so fast_ , Eames thinks, _almost desperate._  
   
 _"Hello? Cobb?"_  
  
Always Cobb. He always assumes that it is Cobb. Maybe because Arthur is used to feed himself with jobs. He just couldn't survive without the puzzles and all that came along when you work in dreams, Eames knew that.  
   
 _"Hey. It’s me, darling."_  
   
He says, hiding perfectly his annoyance, even though he doesn't know exactly why he got so upset.  
  
 _"Ah, hello, Eames."_  
   
He says his name almost like it is a burden. Eames laughs.  
   
 _"When can I see you?"_  
   
And now it's Arthur's time to laugh.  
   
 _"You saw me yesterday, Eames. At the job."_  
   
And Eames is sure that Arthur rolled his eyes when he said that.   
   
 _"I miss you already."_    
   
 _"Right."_  
   
Arthur is not surprised, Eames knows that, but that doesn't mean that he would believe the forger this time.  
   
It has been just a game, the architect always knew.  
  
 _"I mean it."_  
   
 _"Sure."_  
  _  
Still not believing._ Like Eames really expected something would change...  
   
 _"But, well..."_  
   
But nothing changes.  
   
 _"What?"_  
   
Eames waits, holding a laugh. And he knows Arthur is impatient.  
   
 _"We have to see the details for tomorrow."_  
   
Always with the same professional talk.  
   
 _"I knew you couldn't stay away."_  
   
Arthur doesn't say anything, but Eames knows that if they were talking to each other face to face Arthur would be probably trying to kill him right now. Or looking at him like he would do it, but holding back the feeling.  
   
 _"Will you be there?"_  
   
He finally asks.  
   
 _"Of course, darling, always there for you."_  
   
Silence.  
   
 _"Same place, same time?"_  
   
Eames asks, but that was obvious. And that's one of the things Arthur hates the most.  
   
 _"Yeah, of course. Bye, Eames."_  
   
 _"Bye, love."_  
   
And then Arthur finally hangs up.   
   
But they spent more time on the phone this time, though, Eames thinks.  
   
 _Yes_ , he was counting.  
   
.  
  
It's almost three a.m. when the phone rings.  
   
 _"Hello?"_  
   
 _"Hel-... Hm.. Hi, Eames. It's me."_  
   
Eames doesn't answer right away, because he still feels asleep.  _Or maybe this is a dream_ , he thinks _._ Arthur calling him? It was always the other way around. Eames looks at the clock on his bedside one more time. _Yeah, three a.m._ _  
_  
_"Arthur."_  
   
Arthur says, just to be sure that the forger knows. Eames passes one hand through his hair and then says, smiling.  
   
 _"I know it's you, darling."_  
   
Silence. _Okay, now he realizes what he's doing and hangs up on my face,_ Eames thinks.  
   
 _"Can... Can I go to your place? O-or maybe you could come over?"_  
   
 _Wait... What?_ , he thinks, not believing in what he heard.  
   
 _"What?"_  
   
 Arthur's breath is very heavy, and he sounds so tired, like he hadn't slept at all that night.  
  
 _"Please, don't make me repeat that."_  
   
 Eames laughs.  
  
 _"Oh, darling, I'm having a lot of fun, actually."_  
   
Arthur takes a deep breath then says difficultly.  
   
 _"Eames, I'm serious."_  
   
Oh, well... He really seems to be serious, that's why Eames stopped smiling immediately.    
   
 _"What happened?"_  
   
He asks, thinking for a moment that Arthur was already gone, because he takes too long to answer.  
  
 _"I think something's wrong."_  
   
His voice now is shaking a bit. _Why he isn't here already?_ , Eames thinks, feeling that things are bad. Really bad. Arthur never talked to him with that voice. He never left Eames see when he was not feeling good, because when things get serious, Arthur always use to keep all to himself.  
  
 _"Bad feeling?"_  
   
Arthur nods and wishes that Eames could be seeing him, so he didn't need to talk at all. It would be much easier.  
  
 _"Yeah."_

_Or maybe not._  
   
 _"About what?"_  
   
 _"Everything."_  
   
 _Okay,_ that voice is really scaring Eames. So he tries to play a bit.  
  
 _"Me included?"_  
   
Arthur makes a noise, almost like a laugh. A sad laugh.  
  
 _"I always had a bad feeling about you, you know that."_  
   
Eames laughs, but not in the way he used to. Now he just feels a heavy weigh in his throat and an empty space in his chest.  
   
 _I care too much about you, you know that?_ , he thinks, but doesn't say.  
   
And Arthur is in silence again. Not good. Not good at all.  
   
 _"Darling?"_  
   
He calls. Arthur doesn't complain.  
   
 _"What?"_  
   
Eames is standing up while he still holds the phone and says.  
  
 _"I'm on my way."_  
   
And just before he hangs it up, he hears a voice calling him and waits.  
 

_"Eames?"_  
  
And that is one of the first times he feel some positive emotion in the way Arthur says his name.  
  
Almost like something's changed.  
   
 _"Yes, love?"_  
   
Someday, maybe, someday...  
  
 _"Thank you."_

Things will change.  
  
.  
 

The phone rings one... two... three... four... five times until he hears Arthur's voice from the other side of the line.  
   
 _"H-Hello?"_  
   
His voice is weak, and Eames can barely hear it. Also, Arthur seems to be shivering, not holding the phone properly.  
   
 _"Darling. I've been trying to talk to you all day and --"_  
   
 _"Not a good time, Eames."_  
   
He seems upset. No, not upset. Furious, maybe?

Broken. Distant. Cold…  
  
 _"What happened?"_  
   
Silence. And then Eames hears a sob. He is sure it is a sob. _What the hell is happening?_ , he thinks, but doesn’t say. He prefers to stay calm, instead.   
   
 _"Arthur, are you crying?"_  
   
 A few seconds pass. _What did I do?_ , he tries to guess. But, no, he hadn't done anything. Everything was fine until the other night. Of course they both always had their difficulties and differences, but nothing that would make Arthur push him away like that. So suddenly.  
   
 _"No."_

He says, and Eames waits, because he knows it’s a lie.

_“Of course I’m not crying. Are you high, Eames?”_

Arthur asks, now angrily.

_"No, I’m just trying to figure out what the hell is going on.”_

Eames says, now losing his temper.  
   
 _"I don't want to talk to you."_

Arthur replies.

_“What?”_

Eames says, not believing.

_“Why?”_

He waits for Arthur to answer, give him one explanation. Anything. But he doesn’t.  
   
 _"This is the last time I'm going to answer your calls."_  
 

_“What the fuck are you talking about?”_

Arthur is in silence. His breath very slow and heavy.

_“Arthur? Tell me what’s going on.”_

No answer comes.

_“I’m going to your place then.”_

Eames tries.

_“NO.”_

Arthur almost screams.

_“Do not come in here.”_

He completes.

_“Did you hear me?”_

He says, and Eames is in silence, his eyes wide-open, looking at nowhere, barely holding the phone to his ear.  
   
 _"Arthur, talk to me."_

_He tries one more time._  
   
 _"Please."_

_He almost begs; feeling like something had just broken inside him._  
   
 _"Good bye, Eames."_  
   
And he knows that that voice and the way it said his name was the cause of the crack in his chest.  
   
 _\---_  
   
Eames drops the phone and leaves it swings, tied to the line. It goes down and up, and he looks at it like it’s something from another world, just like what he heard from the person on the phone with him.  
   
That was _really_ something from another world. Not something that he expected. Or did he? Eames wasn't sure anymore. Of anything.  
   
 _"Hello?"_  
   
 _"Hello?"_  
   
The voice from the phone kept calling him. He finally picks it up again, trying to recompose himself.

_"Hello."_  
   
He says, feeling his voice getting weaker and weaker.  
  
 _"Hello, sir? Were you saying that you're a friend of the family?"_  
   
 _Friend?_ Could he call himself that?  
   
 _"Hm... Yeah."_  
   
He says and feels like he is lying to himself. When the hell he got so lost?  
   
Than the lady on the phone tells him about the funeral, and he hears like he is an intruder, like it is none of his business.  
   
But it is.  
   
 _(It is?)_  
  
He couldn't help but feel like he is an outsider. A stranger. And maybe he is...  
   
Not part of Arthur's life. Nor anyone's.

Just a person that watched a tragedy coming, because, yes, somehow, he knew it would happen. Cobb was blind; and Arthur… Arthur could be so naive sometimes. None of them saw that Mal was about to break.

But Eames did.  
   
 _(Why didn't Arthur tell him, for God’s sake?)_  
   
And the lady keeps talking. Eames writes down the day and the hour as so he doesn't forget, but it doesn't matter, anyway, he would not show up. He wouldn't go to the damn funeral.  
   
 _(Mal is dead)_  
   
Eames says to himself, just after he hangs up the phone, picks it again and throws it to the floor.

_(And the truth is that not just Mal had broken._

_Fuck. Fuck. Fuck the world. Everything could just blow that he wouldn’t even care)_  
   
He feels nothing.  
  
\---  
   
He talks to Arthur one last time before he goes to Mombasa. The point man was in Paris, he heard, and it took him a long time until he found out Arthur's new phone number.  
   
They are more than thieves, Eames always thought to himself: they are spies, always spying on each other. It's not healthy, not healthy at all, but still they do it.

He always kept looking for Arthur, even though he wasn’t sure if he still remembered him at all.   
  
 _"Hello?"_  
   
Arthur says. Eames waits for him to add ' _Cobb'_ , but he doesn't.  
  
 _"Arthur?"_  
   
He uses Arthur's name. _Because it's safer?_ He doesn't know.  
   
 _"Yes, it's him. Who is it?"_  
   
He doesn't recognize his voice. He doesn't even know it's him. He doesn't....  
   
Eames clears his throat and says.  
   
 _"It's Eames."_  
   
Eames hears an ‘ _ah’_ and waits again. A moment of silence passes, and he feels sick of waiting. Something grows in his throat, and he can hardly breathe.   
   
 _"Hello, Eames."_  
   
Arthur answers. _Always so professionally._  
   
 _“How have you been doing?”_

He asks. Eames rolls his eyes. He is just so sick and tired of all this pretending. All this… This shit. He can’t hold himself anymore.

“ _What the hell, Arthur? How do you think I’m doing?”_

And Arthur is in silence.

_“How did you get my number, anyway?”_

He finally asks.

_“Getting it. It’s what we thieves do. We want something, we get it.”_

Eames says.

_(But there are some things that we cannot have. Even if we fight for it with all our strength)_

_“I heard you are going to Mombassa.”_

Arthur says, suddenly, after a moment of silence.

_“How did you know?”_

Eames asks, but not surprised. Arthur always knows things.

“ _How could I not know?”_

Just like he thought: they are spies.

_“I’m Cobb’s point man, I have to know things.”_

Cobb _’s_ , he added. Eames tries to ignore this part.

“ _So you were spying on me just because he told you so?”_

Eames asks.

_“He didn’t tell me so. I wanted to know.”_

Arthur says then takes a deep breath and ads.

_“You disappeared.”_

Eames smiles. That is ironic.

_“Me, Arthur? Seriously?”_

Silence.

_"You just assumed that I wouldn't be there for you."_

He says, angrily.

_"And would you, Eames?"_  
   
He doesn't answer this time. All the ready answers disappear, just like the smile from his face.

_“I always knew…”_

He says, and Eames stays in silence.

_“I knew we wouldn’t work out.”_

Arthur says, and for the first time Eames agrees with him (or maybe he always did).

Arthur would never be his. He would always belong to Cobb - almost like a perfect little pet -, and to Mal’s ghost, maybe the only person that one day really understood him.

The connection Arthur has with Mal and Cobb is stronger than the one he has (if one day he had one at all) with Eames.

_“Why did you call me, anyway?”_

He wants to know.

_“I don’t know.”_

Eames answers.

And, then, the phone is mute.

.  
   
Two weeks after the inception job, Eames gets a phone call.  
   
 _"Hello?"_

_He says and passes a hand through his hair and then through his face, still feeling asleep. He’s a mess. So tired._

_“Hi.”_

_Eames hears that voice again and again in his head, like an eco and then realizes whose voice it is. It’s almost like a déjà vu, Eames thinks._

He waits, still feeling groggy.

_"It's me."_  
 

Eames smiles.

_"I know it's you, Arthur."_

_He says, sitting in bed, looking at the clock, but he doesn’t care what time it is._  
   
 _"Hm... I..."_  
 

Arthur starts.

  
_"How are you?"_

_Eames asks._  
   
 _(God, now he is the one that's talking professionally)_

_But, well, he really wanted to know._  
   
 _"Good.”_

_Arthur says._

_“You?"_  
 

He asks.

_“I’m fine.”_

Silence. None of them say a thing. Eames wants to ask why Arthur’s calling, but he doesn’t.

_“Look…”_

He says, instead.

“ _I—“_

He tries, but Arthur interrupts him.

“ _I know.”_

He says.

_“I’m sorry.”_

Eames says, anyway. _We were young and stupid,_ he thinks, but don’t need to say it. That was obvious, just like everything else: the looks, the smiles, the way they got worried with each other…

_They could have died in that last job, for God’s sake._

Arthur waits a bit, in silence, and then says.

_“I’m sorry I pushed you away.”_

Silence again. There are things you don’t need to say, you just feel them.

_"Darling?"_  
 

Eames calls.

On the other side of the line, Arthur smiles. But he would never let Eames know that.  
   
 _"Yes?"_

He asks.

_"When can I see you again?"_  
 

Arthur’s smile grows bigger.

  
_"Eames, you just saw me.”_

_But it feels like it was ages ago, Eames thinks._

_(And we lost too much time)_  
   
 _“I miss you already."_  
 

He says. And it couldn’t be truer.  
   
 _"I know.”_

_Arthur answers right away then ads._

_“I miss you too."_


End file.
